


Journey

by RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR



Series: Alphabet [10]
Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR/pseuds/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR
Summary: Neil, Audrey and Marcus take the residents to a convention in Seattle but, due to a bad storm, their flights home get cancelled so they have a long drive ahead of them.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Series: Alphabet [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718374
Comments: 11
Kudos: 48





	Journey

**Author's Note:**

> There was quite a few people asking for jealous, and I was definitely very close to picking that, but I love the opportunity for a little road trip with the San Jose doctors so I decided to go with journey which was suggested by Bee31.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to leave a suggestion for K!

"I am so glad we all got to come to Seattle," Claire said looking out of the window of the hotel they were staying at, staring at the sky that was just beginning to darken.

"It is nice here," Neil replied, packing the last of their belongings into their bags before walking over to where Claire was standing, wrapping his arms around her waist. It had been three weeks since they had declared they were a couple at the hospital and it had been strange to begin with. The other residents were different with Claire, some good, some bad. Shaun had gotten closer to her, asking her about relationship advice and how she knew that Neil was the one for her, she could tell that he was trying to get together with Lea so she helped him as much as she could. At first Alex didn't say anything outright to her but she could tell that he didn't approve, after the first week though he could see that they were both genuinely happy with each other and one night, after a long shift, they were sat in the residents lounge talking when he mentioned how he and his ex-wife/girlfriend was doing before telling her that it was brave of her to risk everything for true love and how he was happy for the two of them. Morgan on the other hand wasn't pleased with their attending dating a resident and she made that clear in the way that Morgan does, making snide comments but playing it off as nothing and from what Shaun had said to Claire, she was on thin ice with Neil, "did you enjoy the convention?" Neil asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

"It was incredible, some of those surgeons had ideas that were almost as good as Shaun's," she replied.

"But not as good as some of my ideas," he added smugly.

"Well..." Claire said. Neil feigned hurt before tickling her sides, "Neil, stop it!" She squealed but he just picked her up and spun her round before dropping her on the bed. She couldn't stop giggling as he straddled her and continued to torture her, "Please, I caught breathe," she said, gasping from laughing so hard. He removed his hands from her body, deciding to instead use them to pin her hands above her head before leaning down to kiss her. They stopped when they heard knocking at the door.

"I hate to interrupt whatever's going on in there," they heard Audrey's voice call through the door, "but we need to get going," Neil got off of Claire and helped her to her feet before they grabbed their bags and headed out of the door where they were greeted by the amused faces of Marcus and Audrey and the slightly displeased face of Morgan.

"Where's Park and Murphy?" Neil asked, unaffected by their colleges looks.

"We're here," Shaun said as they came down the hallway.

"Sorry, Shaun couldn't find his phone, turns out I managed to pack it into my bag," Alex added. Due to the amount of doctors attending the conference, the two residents had been forced to share a room as had Audrey and Morgan.

"Well luckily I didn't have that problem," Marcus replied smugly, being the only one to get a room of his own, "should we go?" With that they all headed down to the hotel lobby before heading to the airport.

As soon as they stepped out of the hotel they were drenched, the rain coming down harder than they had seen in a while and by the time they were at the airport, the sky was being lit up every few minutes by lightning. They rushed inside to get out of the storm, only to be met with signs saying that all flights were cancelled until further notice. 

"Shit," Audrey said and the rest of the group all groaned. 

"Looks like we're going to have to drive it," Marcus said.

"But that's more than a twelve hour drive," Neil argued, "it's already beginning to get dark."

"Didn't realise you were afraid of the dark Dr Melendez," Audrey said, causing him to roll his eyes at her, "I understand what you mean though, but this storm could last for days, we could start driving tonight and stop at a motel to get some sleep."

"Sounds good," Marcus agreed before looking at Neil.

"Well I don't see another choice," Neil said.

"Woah don't any of us get a say?" Morgan asked, "I don't exactly want to be stuck in a car for hours with certain people."

"No you don't get a say," Audrey replied, "we are your bosses, you are our residents, therefore you do as we say without argument," Morgan looked down in frustration, "Park, your with me and Andrews. Neil, you get Browne, Murphy and Reznick," Morgan opened her mouth to argue but closed it again when Audrey gave her a stern look. They all got their bags together and headed over to the car rental place that was nearby.

The first stretch of the journey felt long, even though they had only driven for a couple of hours before they found a motel in a small town. Morgan was in the backseat with Shaun and had spent the entire ride with headphones on, ignoring the others in the car, Shaun started talking about one of the medical procedures that he had been told about during the convention, the rest of the drive to the motel he spent in silence, staring out of the window. Claire was in the passenger seat, occasionally speaking to Neil about which way to go, having agreed that she would be the best to give directions. 

When they pulled into the motel they found it pretty much deserted. They went to see if they had vacancies and once they had paid they made their way to their rooms. When they were settled they headed to a nearby bar to get a late dinner and find some way to spend the rest of the night.

"So did everyone enjoy the convention?" Marcus asked as they were all eating.

"I met the surgeon who had come up with the experimental surgery we used on Mrs Sable a few month ago," Shaun said excitedly, "he's been nominated for an award for it, I wish I could do something like that one day."

"I'm sure you will Shaun," Audrey said to the young resident.

"Yeah, you could take a leaf out of Claire's book and get one faster," Morgan remarked under her breath but load enough that everyone heard. The table went silent before Claire spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Claire asked, annoyance in her voice.

"Nothing," Morgan said, "just that I imagine it's easy to get what you want if you sleep with the right people," her comment caused Alex to choke on his drink but the others didn't notice as they were too busy looking between Morgan and the two surgeons whose relationship she was questioning.

"You're out of line!" Neil said sternly.

"What and sleeping with your resident isn't," Morgan retorted.

"What the hell is your problem?" Claire asked, anger fuelling her, "are you that jealous of the fact that I can become a good surgeon without being a complete bitch to people? Or are you just mad that someone actually likes me?" Everyone stared at Claire with their mouths open, no one had seen this side of her. She swallowed, noticing that everyone was looking at her, before getting up and walking away. Neil went after her to make sure she was okay. The rest of the doctors turned to face Morgan who just stood up and walked off.

Neil caught up to Claire as they were half way to the motel.

"Claire!" He called out, grabbing her arm when he got close enough. Once she felt his hand on her she turned and planted herself in his arms, letting the tears flow that had started to form in her eyes. He held her close, not caring that they were getting soaked in the rain, until she pulled back. He leant down and planted a kiss on her forehead where her hair had started to stick. They continued the walk back to the motel, he kept a reassuring arm around her and she wrapped her arm around his waist.

When they got back to the motel Claire went straight to the shower, turning it up as hot as she could tolerate it to beat the chill that had settled through her body from the rain. After she turned of the shower and got dressed she walked back into the bedroom, clothed in some sweatpants and one of Neil's hoodies. Neil had changed out of his wet clothes and was just wearing some sweatpants. He enveloped her in a hug and she melted into him.

"You alright?" He asked her. She pulled back and looked him in the eyes.

"Yeah, I just can't believe Morgan would say that, especially in front of everyone," she replied before sighing, "and I can't believe what I said back to her."

"To be honest Claire, she kind of deserved it," Neil chuckled, trying to make her laugh.

"I know, but I still feel bad," she said. Their conversation was cut off when there was a knock on the door. Neil kissed her forehead before going to answer the door. 

"Neil," Claire said before he got their, he turned around and she threw a t-shirt at him, he laughed before pulling it on and opening the door, suprised to see Morgan there.

"Hi," she said nervously, "is Claire in there?" She asked, Neil nodded and step back to let her in. Claire looked at her from across the room and Morgan sighed, "can we talk?" Claire nodded.

"The others were on about having a poker match in Andrews' room, I'm gonna go see if it's too late for me to join in," Neil said, grabbing a jacket and heading out the door. Claire sat on the end of the bed and Morgan sat next to her.

"I'm sorry," Morgan said after a few minutes of silence, "I've not been in the best mood these last few weeks," she smiled sadly, "I met a guy," Claire looked at her suprised, many questions raced through her head but she didn't ask any of them, letting the other woman speak, "he was perfect, treated me like a princess, but one day he just didn't show up to one of our dates. I sat at the table in the restaurant for an hour before I realised he wasn't coming," she looked down at her hands, tears in her eyes, "he called me the next day and admitted that he was actually married and his wife had found out about us, I didn't know what to say, I just hung up on him. Then a few days later you and Dr Melendez walked into the hospital holding hands and I was jealous, that you two got to be happy and I didn't," tears fell down her face and Claire grabbed the box of tissues off of the table next to the bed and passed them to her.

"I'm sorry too," Claire said, "I shouldn't have said what I did in the restaurant," Morgan smiled at her.

"You were right though," she sniffed, "I was being a bitch," they both laughed at this.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, that guy sounds like a complete douche," Claire said, causing Morgan to chuckle.

"If it makes you feel any better, I had secretly been rooting for you and Melendez and any other time I would have probably been happy for you two," Morgan admitted, Claire pulled her into a hug and they just held each other for a minute. Claire leaned back and wiped the tears from the other woman's eyes.

"C'mon, lets go join in a game of poker," she stood up and held her hand out to Morgan. The blonde took her hand and stood up as well before they left the room.

They knocked on the door to Andrews' room, he answered with a smile.

"You two must be here to get your asses kicked at poker," he said.

"No," Morgan said, "we're here to kick ass at poker," Andrews laughed at this.

"That's the spirit," he said, letting them into the room. Morgan sat at the space next to Alex and Claire walked over to where Neil was sitting, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving his a quick kiss before sitting next to him. They all laughed and played until early hours of the morning.

They left around midday the next day, Claire, Neil, Morgan and Shaun all shared a car again except this time it wasn't awkward. They put the radio on a couple of hours into the drive and 'take me home, country roads' by John Denver came on causing the three residents to start singing along at the top of their lungs and, after some encouragement, they managed to get Neil to sing along to. The rest of the journey was filled with singing and laughter keeping them all in good spirits until they made it home.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a suggestion for K!


End file.
